Tessa Thompson is the Most Important Actress Working Today

She shines brightest in socially relevant roles.

Welcome to Flashback Fandor! Our staff of movie scientists have dug through our Library-of-Congress-sized archives to unearth our best (and still topical) videos and articles.

Genre fans remember seeing Tessa Thompson for the first time as Jackie Cook, a new character in the second season of the beloved teen detective series Veronica Mars. Over the next decade, Thompson appeared in guest roles all over television, and on the big screen in Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls. But she broke out again as the lead firebrand radio host in the Sundance hit Dear White People, as civil rights activist Diane Nash in Ava Duvernay's Selma, and then as the romantic interest opposite Michael B. Jordan in Creed. Recently, Thompson has cemented her mainstream presence by appearing in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, and most recently in Alex Garland’s sci-fi mindbender, Annihilation. Now, she’s set to make waves in Boots Riley’s highly anticipated film Sorry To Bother You, which will once again place Thompson in a politicized role. As an actress who has used her platform to speak on LGBTQ+ issues, and was heavily involved in establishing the Time’s Up initiative, Thompson is truly one of today’s most important cinematic voices.